Humble THQ Bundle threatens to ruin the brand’s reputation (Updated)

Co-founder responds to Ars and says indies are still the Bundle's core.

(See the bottom of this piece for an update from Humble Bundle co-founder John Graham)

Since its successful debut back in 2010, the Humble Bundle has built a reputation for combining little-known independent games with a popular pay-what-you-want model and platform-agnostic, DRM-free downloads. The company's latest bundle, a partnership with major publisher THQ, could ruin that reputation in one stroke by abandoning some of the core principles that made the Humble Bundle so refreshingly different two years ago.

The Humble THQ Bundle launching today offers buyers a number of the publisher's legacy titles—Darksiders, Company of Heroes (and its Opposing Fronts and Tales of Valor expansions), Metro 2033, and Red Faction®: Armageddon—along with a copy of Saints Row: The Third for those who fork out more than the average sale price of the bundle. While past Humble Bundles have prided themselves on offering their games as DRM-free downloads for Windows, Mac, or Linux, though, the THQ bundle breaks precedent by providing games only as Steam-activated Windows downloads.

The new bundle also slightly tweaks the pure pay-what-you-want structure of past bundles, setting a $1 minimum purchase price. A similar threshhold was put in place for purchasers who wanted access to Steam keys during the Humble Indie Bundle 4 in order to prevent people "legitimizing" fraudulent Steam accounts with a bevy of cheap games.

I definitely see the logic of this new bundle from THQ's point of view. The publisher gets to trade on the Humble Bundle's good name in order to promote older titles that aren't exactly burning up the sales charts anymore. Any additional revenue gained from what's essentially a massive pay-what-you-want sale on its back catalog is pure gravy for THQ. Plus, exposing new players to these franchises increases the potential audience for upcoming sequels like Metro: Last Light and Company of Heroes 2.

But the move makes less sense from the Humble Bundle's standpoint. The Bundle built a name for itself by promoting lesser-known, quality independent games that the creators believed in—games that deserved a wider audience than traditional set-price sales schemes or limited indie marketing budgets would allow. THQ may not be as strong as it once was, but its games hardly need the Humble Bundle's support as much as their indie brethren. Saints Row: The Third recently shipped its 5 millionth copy, thanks in part to a massive marketing campaign alongside last year's release. Using the bundle as further promotion for already successful, big-budget games is the antithesis of "humble," and it dilutes the power and impact of what it means to be part of a Humble Bundle in the first place.

The move away from DRM-free multiplatform distribution might be even more damaging to the Humble Bundle's brand. Back when the first Humble Bundle launched, cofounder Jeffrey Rosen was very open about tolerating piracy rates of up to 25 percent in order to ensure the bundle would be DRM-free. With pay-what-you-want prices as little as 1¢, Rosen said he realized that most pirates were probably just getting around region-locked payment processors or pirating out of sheer laziness. "When considering any kind of DRM, we have to ask ourselves, 'How many legitimate users is it OK to inconvenience in order to reduce piracy?'" he wrote at the time. "The answer should be none."

While Steam may not be a huge inconvenience for gamers these days, its inconvenience level is considerably higher than "none." No doubt THQ was uncomfortable widely releasing its titles in a totally unprotected format (never mind that all its bundled titles are already widely available as cracked torrents). Less clear is why the Humble Bundle was willing to essentially sell out this core part of its DNA just to get THQ on board (Humble Bundle representatives have yet to respond to our request for comment). Perhaps tellingly, the option to donate a portion of the bundle purchase price to the Electronic Frontier Foundation has been replaced this time around with the option to donate to the Red Cross instead.

In the past, the Humble Bundle has been a boon to gamers on non-Windows platforms as well. By requiring that all bundled PC games also be available for Mac and Linux users, the Humble Bundle has led directly to new, non-Windows ports for a number of well-regarded indie games, including Bastion, Psychonauts, and Sword and Sworcery EP. The company continued its cross-platform tradition by urging a number of iOS-to-Android ports for its Humble Android Bundles and even hired a full-time Linux game porter recently to help the process along in the future.

Theoretically, this same pressure could have been brought to bear on THQ, requiring the publisher to work on Mac and Linux ports for its big-name games if it wanted access to the Humble Bundle name and sales platform. Instead, those in charge of the bundle seem perfectly OK with diluting yet another key element of the Humble Bundle experience in getting its first major publisher on board.

Building a successful brand is tough, but ruining a successful brand can be distressingly easy. By effectively ignoring many of the elements that made the Humble Bundle interesting and different in the first place, the Humble THQ Bundle risks irreparably harming what is currently a nearly unimpeachable brand in the world of game sales and distribution.

UPDATE

In a response to Ars, Humble Bundle co-founder John Graham assured users the company will "never stop creating Humble Indie Bundles... and the other bundle types we've successfully launched this year. But we’re also eager to see if our pay-what-you-want plus charity model meshes with critically acclaimed AAA content as well."

Graham said the new THQ bundle did not represent a permanent departure from the company's indie roots, and that the company may even release a third indie bundle this year. "This year has also been a year of many experiments for us that fall outside the traditional Humble Indie Bundle framework," Graham told us. "We’re very excited to be able to offer the gaming community a massive sale with blockbuster content and raise money for charity at the same time. We will of course continue to support indies content as a core of our business."

Regarding the lack of Mac and Linux ports this time around, Graham said plainly that, "in the case of this promotion, it would not have been possible for us to deliver this blockbuster content via other means." But Graham also promised the Humble Bundle "will not cease in our quest to bring awesome content to Mac and Linux and Android," and pointed out that the Humble eBook Bundle contained the first digital publication of Neil Gaiman's graphic novel Signal to Noise.

Promoted Comments

I think the far bigger problem here is that people are taking the Humble Bundle for granted. Maybe people think that by offering Steam keys, that there won't be a DRM-free bundle this month. Maybe people feel like they are "losing" a bundle?

Does selling DRM'ed stuff ruin their reputation? Perhaps it does for anal completionists. The site is pretty clear you're getting Steam Keys for Windows. Unless you insist on owning _every_ Humble Bundle, you simply avoid this one.

Also: I've never considered the Humble Bundle to be a strong promoter of "lesser-known" indie titles. It's been a strong promoter of more _popular_ indie-titles. Darwinia? Amnesia? Jamestown? Binding of Isaac? Trine? Braid? Bit Trip Beat? Pretty much every title I've seen on Humble Bundle is something I've heard about long before. If I want "lesser known", I turn to Indie Royale.

I also don't think the Humble Bundle has a lot of "pull", to the extent that they can make THQ port games to Linux and Mac. I might be wrong, but the HB tends to raise a couple million, that gets divided between multiple devs, charities, and itself. I don't think that gives it a lot of bargaining power with a large publisher, unless the publisher is doing a fire sale as it sinks (in which case I doubt it's in a position to port their library).

Humblebundle.com has been expanding their offerings for a while now as we saw with the music and book bundles. This is just another offering from them. If you don't like this offering, just accept that it's not for you, and wait for the next indie bundle.

Good games and a great price... unless you're on a Mac or Linux, then it's a big ol' nothing. And if you're anti-DRM it's a no-go regardless of the platform. Not hard to figure out why people are upset. It's been explained several times.

I'm torn. I always make it a point to buy the Humble Bundle because charities, but I don't like what's going on this time. DRM+No Mac+No Linux makes it hard for me to support it as it goes against one of the big reasons why I buy the Humble Bundles.

Odds are I'll skip this time but donate to the Red Cross, EFF, Wikipedia, and Child's Play for the same total amount I was planning for each Humble Bundle. No sense not donating to good causes just because I don't like the Humble Bundle's recent choice.

Foolish. At the very least they should have attempted some kind of brand differentiation. Calling it a "Big League Bundle" instead of a Humble Bundle for example. Present this as an organization trying something different in addition to the original rather than a reinvention of the original.

Kyle, I think the $1 minimum was instated during the last holiday Steam sale due to overlap between the bundle and the metagame Valve was running at the time. People were using $0.01 transactions on HIB to get a couple of games on Steam which had easy achievements that could be cashed in for chances at games or coupons that could be traded. Essentially it was gold farming pure and simple.

EDIT: Oh hey, reading fail. I thought that policy was in place ever since that incident. My bad.

Foolish. At the very least they should have attempted some kind of brand differentiation. Calling it a "Big League Bundle" instead of a Humble Bundle for example. Present this as an organization trying something different in addition to the original rather than a reinvention of the original.

This would get my vote as well. Titling it a Humble Bundle really dilutes the brand and image.

"A brand is a promise" is something that many brands forget. In this case, the Humble Bundle brand is backing away from the very core principles that made it successful. I, for one, do not want to participate in a brand that is nothing more than a dumping ground for poor-selling games from major developers. I wonder why the change in direction?

The Humble Bundle has always been about the charity to me. In that regard I don't particularly care what they offer up. Steam-locked THQ titles? Sure, here's some money for Child's Play. A stack of poorly done indie games that I'll never play? Here's more money to Child's Play. I get a tangible reward, Child's Play gets money to help needy children, and we all go home happy.

These Steam codes, most of which are for games I already own, will sit around for a few months and then I'll gift them out to someone in the GESC. That's a win/win/win in my book.

Is THQ really hurting so badly that they need to do this in partnership with the Humble Bundlers? It wouldn't get enough attention if they announced "Pay what you want for these games and oh yeah we'll throw in Saint's Row 3 for a kick"?

I couldn't be happier, and I'd prefer to see the Humble Bundle folks move in the direction of big-name titles to get bigger payouts.

THQ is circling the drain. They need help, badly. The resources required to port their titles to MacOS or Linux are not there, and not something that could be done in time if the HB folks even wanted to pay for it. I agree that it's not helping those platforms, but it's not like they had access to those titles yesterday through normal purchase methods. That aspect at least is unfortunate, but they've had Android-specific bundles before.

I'm ambivalent on the DRM aspect. Again, there's not much time to argue for circumvention. This is a way for THQ to remain relevant and sell a butt-ton of DLC. They just don't have time to re-think anything other than Steam distribution.

Gamers who would potentially buy the titles over Steam are going to get a big windfall. Gamers who don't want to participate are not forced to do so.

I feel that Humble Bundle is in some way tainted by this. Not only does THQ not need the help, the DRM and lack of Mac support go directly against everything I've percieved Humble Bundle to stand for.

It's nice that giving 100% of the purchase to Child's Play is still an option, but I noticed that the Electronic Frontier Foundation is not listed anymore. Instead, it's the Red Cross. Wonder if THQ nixed EFF for this?

In any case, I'll give my money straight to Child's Play and skip this Bundle.

Meh, doesn't bug me that much. While I appreciate the Humble Bundle tradition of supporting indies and providing DRM-free, cross-platform games... As long as they make it clear that the bundle is Windows/Steam only this time around, I won't argue with "pay what you want" games.

Is THQ really hurting so badly that they need to do this in partnership with the Humble Bundlers? It wouldn't get enough attention if they announced "Pay what you want for these games and oh yeah we'll throw in Saint's Row 3 for a kick"?

Yes, yes they are. Rumor has it they're on the verge of being wiped out.

I agree that this seems like a silly move for Humble Bundle. I wonder what would be better, refrain from buying, or just giving a dollar, or give, but allocate all to charity. I like voting with my wallet, but so many choices, don't know what to do!

The Red Cross stood in for the EFF in a previous Humble Bundle (4) too. In that case it was decided by a vote of the game devs.

I'm not going to be supporting this bundle. I've payed for other dev-specific bundles in the past, but not without the ability to support DRM-free and cross-platform gaming. On another note, they may be getting desperate to find new blood anyway; the last Android bundle was almost entirely games from previous bundles.

Isn't allowing "pay what you want" sales something we as gamers have wanted major publishers to start doing for years? So THQ goes ahead and does exactly that - and we cry foul because *gasp* major publisher!

Yes they are all older titles - this was also true for the original Humble Bundles - they did not contain games released last week or even last few months.

Humble Bundle has done publisher specific bundles before. Yes the lack of open source or Windows/Mac versions is not typical - but really do you expect THQ to port to Linux for a $1 sale? Chances are THQ wouldn't even be able to release the code or remove the DRM if they wanted to without major licensing issues or costs. Releasing steam keys is easy and cheap.

So many people complain about "having" to pirate games because they are so expensive - here is a major publisher offering games at the price point you can pay and you spit in their face.

I think the far bigger problem here is that people are taking the Humble Bundle for granted. Maybe people think that by offering Steam keys, that there won't be a DRM-free bundle this month. Maybe people feel like they are "losing" a bundle?

Does selling DRM'ed stuff ruin their reputation? Perhaps it does for anal completionists. The site is pretty clear you're getting Steam Keys for Windows. Unless you insist on owning _every_ Humble Bundle, you simply avoid this one.

Also: I've never considered the Humble Bundle to be a strong promoter of "lesser-known" indie titles. It's been a strong promoter of more _popular_ indie-titles. Darwinia? Amnesia? Jamestown? Binding of Isaac? Trine? Braid? Bit Trip Beat? Pretty much every title I've seen on Humble Bundle is something I've heard about long before. If I want "lesser known", I turn to Indie Royale.

I also don't think the Humble Bundle has a lot of "pull", to the extent that they can make THQ port games to Linux and Mac. I might be wrong, but the HB tends to raise a couple million, that gets divided between multiple devs, charities, and itself. I don't think that gives it a lot of bargaining power with a large publisher, unless the publisher is doing a fire sale as it sinks (in which case I doubt it's in a position to port their library).

I feel that Humble Bundle is in some way tainted by this. Not only does THQ not need the help, the DRM and lack of Mac support go directly against everything I've percieved Humble Bundle to stand for.

It's nice that giving 100% of the purchase to Child's Play is still an option, but I noticed that the Electronic Frontier Foundation is not listed anymore. Instead, it's the Red Cross. Wonder if THQ nixed EFF for this?

In any case, I'll give my money straight to Child's Play and skip this Bundle.

I kind of agree with you except on THQ not needing help. They aren't an indie dev studio but they're hurtin' pretty bad from what I can gather.

I think HB could've signed an agreement on with them demanding new games be ported to the three platforms in exchange for the front-page though. I also agree a new brand like someone already proposed would've been a good choice.

Building a successful brand is tough, but ruining a successful brand can be distressingly easy. By effectively ignoring many of the elements that made the Humble Bundle interesting and different in the first place, the Humble THQ Bundle risks irreparably harming what is currently a nearly unimpeachable brand in the world of game sales and distribution.

Similar argument about a famous online website and forum. Waiting for the article on that.

Are THQ games funded by publishers? I'm not completely sure there, but I thought they were not. I don't really care about the size of the company; and THQ is in trouble, so I wouldn't mind helping out. I feel we should be supporting any studio that makes its own creative decisions, big or small.

What annoys me is that there were no DRM-free options and, far worse, no Linux and Mac ports. I realise that porting isn't always easy, especially if the game and/or engine is designed around DirectX, but if there is one thing consistently awesome about the Humble Bundles, it's the multiplatform support.

THQ - port your games to Mac and Linux, and I'll gladly buy them again, even if they are all Steam-bound (though DRM-free would be nice).

I've always felt HB was about getting the games out there. Having an alternative to Steam's DRM is fine by me.

There are plenty (more like a few I guess) games on Steam that are DRM free. Once they are downloaded, you can copy and play them outside of steam. The publishers set the DRM stuff up with Steam. Steam does provide a DRM option for publishers if they want to use it, but they certainly don't have to.

Meh, if they would've included the DLC with Saints Row it would've been worth it. Good thing I increased the humble tip and charity (I already own Saints Row, Darksiders, Metro, Red Faction and don't care about the others)

Kyle, I think the $1 minimum was instated during the last holiday Steam sale due to overlap between the bundle and the metagame Valve was running at the time. People were using $0.01 transactions on HIB to get a couple of games on Steam which had easy achievements that could be cashed in for chances at games or coupons that could be traded. Essentially it was gold farming pure and simple.

EDIT: Oh hey, reading fail. I thought that policy was in place ever since that incident. My bad.

No, you were right the first time. The $1 min has been in place since then, but only for Steam keys (it you paid less than $1 you'd get everything but). Since this bundle is *only* for Steam keys, it's effectively a minimum for the bundle, although not really even then, since it looks like less than $1 will get you soundtracks but no games.

Kyle Orland / Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in Pittsburgh, PA.